--- title: ‘Busy’ People Aren’t Actually That Productive description: “Busy” people aren’t actually that productive, the midlife crisis is a myth and more. canonical: https://time.com/4436632/busy-people-arent-actually-that-productive/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-03T16:00:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:37.950Z article:section: Ideas og:title: “Busy” people aren’t actually that productive og:description: These are today's five best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4436632/busy-people-arent-actually-that-productive/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: “Busy” people aren’t actually that productive twitter:description: These are today's five best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'Busy' People Aren't Actually That Productive by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 3, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Aug 3, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**“Busy” people aren’t actually that productive.**](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-being-busy-makes-you-less-productive-dr-travis-bradberry) By Travis Bradberry in LinkedIn **2\.** [**The midlife crisis is a myth.**](http://www.npr.org/2016/03/14/469813659/forget-the-red-sports-car-the-midlife-crisis-is-a-myth) By Barbara Bradley Hagerty in NPR **3\.** [**Most Americans believe their country is going to hell. But they’re wrong. Here’s why.**](http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/03/how-america-is-putting-itself-back-together/426882/) By James Fallows in the Atlantic **4\.** [**Want to improve your memory? Ignore more stuff.**](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/ignoring-stuff-is-good-for-your-memory/) By Julia Shaw in Scientific American **5\.** [**The GOP might regret its stand against President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. Here’s why.**](http://time.com/4262720/goldsmith-gop-block-garland/) By Jack Goldsmith in Time  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4436632/busy-people-arent-actually-that-productive/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4436632/busy-people-arent-actually-that-productive/"},"headline":"'Busy' People Aren't Actually That Productive","datePublished":"2016-08-03T16:00:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:37.950Z","description":"These are today's five best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4436632/busy-people-arent-actually-that-productive/","keywords":["Innovation","Supreme Court","United States","memory","productivity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4436632/busy-people-arent-actually-that-productive/","name":"'Busy' People Aren't Actually That Productive"}}]}] ```